Sean Flynn: The Consummate Connector

Sean Flynn is a coach and a guidance counselor who has a large influence on the student body at Monument Mountain Regional High School (MMRHS). Sean Flynn has made a career out of connecting with students; his impact on hundreds of his former students over his past 20 years at Monument has translated to a lifetime of influence.

Sean Flynn has been able to maintain relationships with his students long after they leave high school. As they contact him whenever they can to inform him on their accomplishments.

“I’ll get emails from them, or I’ll get emails from their parents about where they’re at, what they’re up to” Flynn says, about how people still stay in touch with him. “I had a student who graduated from here named Cam Stevenson, who just graduated from Southern Maine Community College, with two degrees, one in fire science and the other as a paramedic. And he is now one of the paramedics on staff for Former President George H. W. Bush”“That’s one of the most recent students who has contacted me” he says. Stevensons Dad contacted Flynn to let him know because Flynn was who first introduced him to the college in Maine and was instrumental in him getting accepted.

Flynn still stays in contact with hundreds of students. He receives many emails everyday from either the students or parents with an update on where they’re at in life. Many students feel the need to tell him about their successes, because he has had such a big impact on their life through his guidance at MMRHS.

He gets stories from students daily, boasting about what they’ve done and how much he [Flynn] has helped them throughout life. “Another one that I would probably point out would be a former graduate named Natalie Akres who graduated from Yale who is now working for a company called the Gakko project (Gakko means school in Japan) and its an organization created for learners.”

They also don’t reach out to him with good news, sometimes the reach out when they are going through tough and hard times.

“Most people, at some point during high school, will go through at least one or two really difficult moments. And your hope is that they’ll feel like they can reach out to one of us and we can help them get to the other side of it” Flynn says when asked on how he gets people out of going down a dark path. “You want those things to happen now, where they can be supported by people and learn the skills that they need to navigate a really difficult situation later on in life.”

Part of Flynn’s job is to help and guide students through tough times and to establish a good staff and student relationship, so the students can trust teachers.“[Marianne Young] She created a culture here where we are very focused on building student centered learning environment in which faculty are encouraged to be first and foremost to mentor students.”

Many of Flynn’s students have come back to the Berkshires and raised a family of their own, most of them having a large influence on the community. “To see people like Matt Naventi, Brendan Heck, Jess Platt, coaching and teaching. Kids that I coached who are now back here, coaching my kids.” “I really like to see.”

When asked why he thinks former students still keep in touch with him; he notes “hopefully because I built a good relationship with them and you know, they felt like I helped them at some point life in some kind of way.